The Alexander Technique is a Step in the Right Direction

By Anthony Brancato
Staff writer

As usual, it's fifteen minutes before the beginning of class and 21-year-old senior Michael Gross is still loitering around his room. He plugs his iPod into his computer and decides to transfer just a few more songs.

“Don’t worry I’ll just walk fast and maybe jog a bit,” said Gross, a computer science major. “I do this all the time, I’ll make it.”

What Gross doesn’t know, according to teachers of a program called the Alexander Technique, is that he might be putting needless strain on his body without even realizing it.

“Oftentimes we become disconnected from our bodies as they become a source of pain,” says Robert Bradley, an Alexander Technique teacher and part-time social worker. “We work through our discomfort and disease and ignore signals from the body rather than take a practical look at what we might be doing wrong.”

The Alexander Technique was invented in the 1890’s and has developed into what writer and Technique teacher Franis Engel calls a “de-education process,” in which the body is taught to lose habits making people more aware of their movements.

According to the 45-year-old Bradley, this awareness creates a release of tension from the body and mind.

“My hands-on approach to learning will help to ease habitual muscular contractions and so improve overall functioning of the brain and body,” said Bradley, a resident of East Setauket. “The Alexander Technique offers you a range of choices and essential tools that will serve you in meeting and dealing with the pressures and stresses of daily life.”

Bradley has been teaching the Alexander Technique for eight years, six of them at Stony Brook University. He says that the basic idea behind the Technique is having the head and neck in appropriate balance.

“If your skull is not properly balanced on your spine, possibly as a reaction to how you see, your whole body suffers,” Bradley says. “A chronically compressed spine is a sure sign of undo tension which can lead to any number of difficulties, infirmities, and pains.”

Bradley says many of his students are musicians, who use their body all the time. Michelle Wenderlich and Lisa Dowling are two of his students, both of whom are bass players.

“I’ve been going to sessions for about two months now,” said Wenderlich, a 21-year-old senior and music major. “When I stand straight up [with the bass] there’s a noticeable difference in sound projection, it helps.”

Lisa Dowling, a 22-year-old music major, has also been going to sessions with Bradley for two months. “The transition is becoming easier,” Dowling says. “I used to have kind of a jerky motion, my body was out of sync.”

Even though the Technique is known to be helpful for musicians, Bradley says that it can help someone in any activity that is physically demanding.
“I have a student who lays down rugs,” Bradley says. “Physically, it’s one of the worst jobs you can have.”

But Bradley says that though he holds both regular classes and individual classes by appointment, he hasn’t had too big of a turnout over the past few years.

“Last semester, I had a meeting before three vacation days,” he said. “So it didn’t really work out too well as most students didn’t come back.”

He also tried giving free Alexander Technique lessons to try to attract students but that didn’t work too well either.

“I gave free table lessons in the Wellness Center,” he says, “But people didn’t seem to be interested because it didn’t have to do with a massage.”

A reason behind the low turnout could be the prices of these Alexander Technique classes and personal sessions. If someone wants to become an avid follower of the technique, the endeavor becomes quite costly.

“You have to pay for it out of pocket,” Bradley says. “At Stony Brook you get a much better rate.”

Bradley suggests that students come in a small group or for a half-hour because the rates are much cheaper. He says for a small group it is $10 per person while it is $30 per half hour for private sessions. The private sessions outside of campus, he says, he charges $70 an hour.

Bradley says that even though past attempts haven’t been as successful, he is always looking to educate people about the Alexander Technique.

“I also talk to groups if people want me to speak to them,” he says. “I talk to them free of charge to try to get the word out.”

Bradley holds group and individual sessions, upon pre-registration, at the Music Building next to the Staller Center every Monday night at 4:30 P.M. He also holds office hours by appointment at the Wellness Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you are interested in attending one of Bradley’s sessions or learning more about the Alexander Technique, he can be reached via email XanderTeacher@aol.com.